Urban Sprawl, Squared

The Places We Live is a new book of extraordinary photographs by Norwegian photographer Jonas Bendiksen, documenting the teeming urban slums and shantytowns of four world cities: Nairobi, Mumbai, Jakarta, and Caracas.

If you've ever doubted the necessity of architects—and the political will to employ them for the greater good—then check out Bendiksen's photos online, where you can experience the breathtaking scale and squalor of these worlds-within-cities, in a nifty and engrossing slideshow with natural sound from the people and places he spent two years photographing.

Bendiksen, who shoots for Magnum, is also the author of Satellites, another stellar photo-essay on the orphaned enclaves, rootless cities, and Soyuz landing zones on the southern fringe of the former USSR.